Andrews LEA Ch. 3: My biggest takeaway from this chapter is the importance of understanding that the context of language shifts depending on social situations. While I already knew this fact, this chapter set up examples of exactly how and why this shift occurs. One major point of this chapter is that "LEA emphasizes the relationships between language and situation" (pg. 58). This cohesive relationship develops as we develop. Learning language is a continuous process that extends into our adult lives. It is a process that changes, requires practice, and continued adaptation. From this chapter, I gained an appreciation for the awareness that an individual needs in order to understand the complex nature of language. In my future teaching, I will keep this idea in mind.
Andrews LEA Ch. 10
Why choose this chapter?
As a future educator, it is important to understand how discrimination and prejudice affect language. Understanding how language is affected by this will be helpful in understanding how to create a classroom that does not allow negative comments. Sometimes, we may not realize how discriminatory our language can be in certain situations.
Exploration Activity (The Language of Intolerence and Discrimination) (pg. 308) Exploration: It's a Man's World Directions: How might you rewrite the following lines from popular culture so that they aren't referring only to one gender?
Where's my dinner, woman?/ Shall we make dinner?
White men can't jump./Short people cannot jump.
There's no crying in baseball./Cheer up, no need to cry.
You may kiss the bride./You may kiss your significant other.
Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus./Men and Women are different.
She thinks my tractor's sexy./ He/She admires me.
How often do stereotyped labels come into the language of popular culture?
Quite frequently! I come into contact with stereotyped labels such as these on a daily basis.
Do people use these labels intentionally or unintentionally?
Both. In many ways, our society has become accustom to comments such as these. It happens intentionally based on daily life and unintentionally based on typical societal norms.
Does this language reflect societies values, do you think?
Yes. In many ways, men and women are still seen as extremely different. It is obviously not as prevalent in the same way as in earlier years, but it does still happen. Men are still taught to be strong and masculine, whereas women are still taught to play the motherly, tender role.
My biggest takeaway from this chapter is the importance of understanding that the context of language shifts depending on social situations. While I already knew this fact, this chapter set up examples of exactly how and why this shift occurs. One major point of this chapter is that "LEA emphasizes the relationships between language and situation" (pg. 58). This cohesive relationship develops as we develop. Learning language is a continuous process that extends into our adult lives. It is a process that changes, requires practice, and continued adaptation. From this chapter, I gained an appreciation for the awareness that an individual needs in order to understand the complex nature of language. In my future teaching, I will keep this idea in mind.
Andrews LEA Ch. 10
Exploration Activity (The Language of Intolerence and Discrimination) (pg. 308)
Exploration: It's a Man's World
Directions: How might you rewrite the following lines from popular culture so that they aren't referring only to one gender?